Concern Levels

Learn how concern levels are calculated in the Executive Summary of your Transect Report

In this article:

Overview

The Executive Summary in a Transect Report tells you what resource types are essential within the report by assigning a high, medium, or low level of concern for four main topics:

  • Federal Species: Statutorily-protected federal species
  • State Species: Statutorily-protected state species (For states that do not have statutory protection for state species, species do not warrant consideration. This box will be gray with a note saying: Transect does not account for state-listed species in this state at this time)
  • Waters: Wetlands, streams, rivers, floodplains, etc.
  • Protected Areas: Lands owned or managed by federal, state, tribal, local, and other entities

The three topics above encompass many of the resources protected by the federal, state, and local regulations that Transect assesses.

We also provide one concern level that is not directly related to natural resources:

  • Environmental Compliance: A preliminary understanding of potential hazardous and contamination issues

The environmental compliance information provided by Transect is intended to give the user a preliminary understanding of potential environmental contamination issues that may affect the economics, placement, or scheduling of a project. The environmental compliance information provided by Transect should not be relied upon for environmental compliance due diligence and does not replace a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment.

Each topic has three components:

  • High, medium, or low concern level: Determined based on the presence or absence of specific data within the project and the answers to the context questions
  • Notes: Recommendations for next steps based on the concern level
  • Snapshot: A summary of the data used to generate the concern level

The species topic has one additional component:

  • Recommendations: Species-specific recommendations and/or next steps

Species Concern Levels

Species of Concern is a term used differently by many conservation and regulatory groups. The lead federal species protection agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, defines Species of Concern as an informal term that refers to those species that might require concentrated conservation actions.

Transect uses this term similarly: Species of Concern are species that need additional action on a project site. The additional action might be a habitat assessment, a presence/absence survey, or a permit.

Because federal and state laws protect sensitive species, and those laws often trigger long permitting timelines, please know as soon as possible if there are any species of concern on your proposed project.

Federal Species Concern Levels are:

HIGH if the AOI intersects one or more federal species that are "Species of Concern."

MODERATE if the AOI intersects with one or more federal species that are "May Occur," but there are no Species of Concern

LOW if the AOI does not intersect any federal species that are "Species of Concern" or "May Occur."

State Species Concern Levels are:

HIGH if the AOI intersects one or more state species that are "Species of Concern."

MODERATE if the AOI intersects with one or more state species that are "May Occur" but there are no "Species of Concern."

LOW if the AOI does not intersect any state species that are Species of Concern or May Occur

Waters Concern Levels

The high, moderate, or low executive summary levels for waters are computed using the number of intersections of the project AOI with the various waters-related datasets in Transect. The formula is as follows:

HIGH If the AOI intersects with ANY "Wetland areas" OR ANY "Waterbodies areas" AND if "Waters will be affected"*

MODERATE

It is currently not possible to have a moderate water concern level unless overridden by a user or admin.

LOW If the AOI intersects with NO "Wetland areas" AND NO "Waterbodies areas" OR if "Waters will not be affected"*

*As defined by the report creator in the context questions in the report creation process.

Protected Areas Concern Levels

Protected lands are the federal, territorial, American Indian, state, regional, local, non-governmental, and private conservation lands set aside to preserve biological diversity or for recreational purposes. These lands are legally protected, and development within these lands typically triggers additional environmental review or permitting. As such, it is imperative to know about the location of protected lands within and in the vicinity of a proposed project, as development within protected lands can drastically affect a project's timeline, budget, and footprint.

The concern level is:

HIGH if the AOI intersects with ANY "Federal owned or managed areas."

MODERATE if the AOI intersects with ANY "State-owned or managed areas" OR ANY "Other owned or managed areas" OR ANY "Tribal Areas"

LOW if the AOI intersects with NO "Federal owned or managed areas" AND NO "State-owned or managed areas" AND NO "Other owned or managed areas" AND NO "Tribal Areas"

Environmental Compliance Concern Levels

The environmental compliance information provided by Transect is intended to give the user a preliminary understanding of potential environmental contamination issues that may affect the economics, placement, or scheduling of a project. 

HIGH
It is currently not possible to have a High environmental concern level unless overridden by a user or admin.

MODERATE if the AOI intersects with ANY "Environmental catalog location areas" OR ANY "Federal facilities with formal actions areas" OR ANY "Federal facilities with penalties areas" OR ANY "Federal facilities with violations areas" OR ANY "Federal facilities with resource conservation and recovery acts areas."

LOW if the AOI intersects with NO "Environmental catalog location areas" AND NO "Federal facilities with formal actions areas" AND NO "Federal facilities with penalties areas" AND NO "Federal facilities with violations areas" AND NO "Federal facilities with resource conservation and recovery acts areas."